Sidste skepost (runsibel ske)

"Runcible" is a nonsense word invented by Edward Lear. The word appears (as an adjective) several times in his works, most famously as the "runcible spoon" used by the Owl and the Pussycat.^[1] The word "runcible" was apparently one of Lear's favourite inventions, appearing in several of his works in reference to a number of different objects. In his verse self-portrait, The Self-Portrait of the Laureate of Nonsense, it is noted that "he weareth a runcible hat".^[2] Other poems include mention of a "runcible cat",^[3] a "runcible goose" (in the sense of "silly person"),^[4] and a "runcible wall".^[4]

Edward Lear's best-known poem, The Owl and the Pussycat, published in 1871, includes the passage:

They dined on mince and slices of quince,

which they ate with a runcible spoon.^[1]

Another mention of this piece of cutlery appears in the alphabetical illustrations Twenty-Six Nonsense Rhymes and Pictures. Its entry for D reads

The Dolomphious Duck,

who caught Spotted Frogs for her dinner

with a Runcible Spoon^[5]

Lear often illustrated his own poems, and he drew a picture of the "dolomphious duck" holding in its beak a round-bowled spoon containing a frog: